t  •..:  i ' !  •  • 


THE  SOCIAL  SIDE 


OF 


'HE  ELECTRIC  RAILWAY. 


A  PAPER';5' 


BY 


T.  C.   MARTIN, 


Editor  of  THE  ELECTRICAL  ENGINEER,  New  York. 


LEAD   BEFORE,  AND   PRINTED   BY,  THE   N^W  YORK 
ELECTRICAL  SOCIETY— ELECTRICAL  SECTION 


OF    THE    AMERICAN    INSTITUTE. 


APRIL,  1890. 


- 


THE  SOCIAL  SIDE 

OP 

THE  ELECTRIC  RAILWAY. 

Bv    T.    C.    MARTIN. 


A  MONTH  or  two  ago  we  had  the  pleasure  of  listening  in  this 
hall  to  a  most  interesting  paper  by  Mr.  &  RanA  jjrreea^  on  the 
development  of  electric  traction.  I  hr.4>  ]Ji»evioufsly  prccftiyed  the 
secretary  of  the  society  a  paper  on  the  same  subject,  but  I  felt  it 
would  be  useless  for  me  to  traverse  the  same  ground  again.  Mr. 
Greene  spoke  *with  authority,  and  not  as  one  of  the  newspaper 
scribes  ;  and  I  was  glad  to  learn  from  him  and  accept  most  of 
his  conclusions.  I  recognize  the  fact,  however,  that  he  dealt 
with  the  topic  mainly  on  its  technical  side,  as  a  specialist  of 
experience,  and  that  there  was  still  a  very  important  branch  of 
the  subject  on  which  a  few  helpful  words  might  be  said — naaiely, 
the  relation  of  the  electric  railway  to  the  public  and  to  social 
conditions  generally. 

Few  of  us  stop  to  think  of  the  enormous  diff erence  that  facili- 
ties for  travel  make  in  our  lives.  I  do  not  refer  to  the  opportu- 
nities and  appliances  for  long  journeys,  but  to  the  simple  every- 
day transportation  that  we  calmly  accept  as  a  prime  condition  of 
existence.  It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  every  one  of  us  came 
here  to-night,  and  will  go  home,  without  depending  on  our  legs 
to  make  the  trip.  But  this  is  altogether  modern,  and  to  the 
generation  immediately  preceding  ours  would  have  seemed  as 
unlikely  as  that,  from  total  lack  of  exercise  our  legs  should 
become  atrophied  and  own  no  function  of  pedestrianism.  Yet 
now  that  we  have  enjoyed  the  advantages  that  the  means  of 
artificial  locomotion  already  familiar  give  us,  we  want  more. 
The  Harlemite  does  not  consider  it  rapid  transit  unless  he  goes 
from  City  Hall  square  to  the  rocks  and  goats  above  Mount  Morris 
park  in  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  his  discontent  with  the  steam 
railway  on  stilts  becomes  daily  diviner  and  deeper.  The  citizen 
of  Brooklyn  is  not  satisfied  to  be  reduced  to  a  despairing  calcula- 
tion as  to  whether  he  is  after  all  better  off  by  being  jammed  and 
gouged  on  the  bridge  than  by  balancing  on  one  trodden  toe  upon 
the  old  ferry  boats,  before  he  can  reach  his  little  vine-clad, 
mortgaged  home  at  the  back  of  the  east  wind.  And  as  for  the 
Jerseyman,  it  is  needless  to  say  that  of  all  the  ills  of  his  weari- 
some daily  travel,  he  is  able  to  commute  only  one.  Still,  we  are 


679935 


infinitely  better  off  in  choice  of  location  for  our  homes  than  were 
the  people  of  Manhattan  before  us,  who  knew  not  the  elevated 
railroad,  and  never  gladdened  their  eyes  with  the  majestic 
spectacle  of  the  platform  of  Brooklyn  Bridge  at  a  quarter  to  six 
on  a  wet  March  night,  with  the  cable  broken  down.  If  you  will 
take  the  trouble  to  invite  the  candid  opinion  of  the  "oldest 
inhabitant "  as  to  the  vanished  Broadway  stages,  the  early  street 
cars,  and  the  ancient  ferries,  you  will  learn  that  we  have  scored  a 
distinct  advance.  That  is  why  we  all  want  something  better. 

This  is  a  barbarous  age  we  live  in,  but  we  have  a  foretaste  of 
'the  civilization  that  awaits  our  descendants.  We  are  beginning 
to  learn 'that  luxury  is  a  relative  term.  A  hundred  or  even  50 
years  ago  there  was  no  such  thing  as  luxurious  travel.  Washing- 
ton came  to  New  York  to  be  installed  as  president,  in  a  manner 

fc  &  fastidious  drummer  might  now  despise.     De  Quincey  was 

iivg  to  give  $i$  jreaiis  of  his  life  for  an  outside  place  on  a  stage 
coach  that  carried  cfoVi^  from  London  through  the  English 
•\  (jojijfej*  tjti$*4^ws  &f  A  great  event.  We  save  our  five  years  and 
•  *  '-our  fieafthj  'anft*  get  .'a*ll  the  thrill  we  want,  by  blocking  up  the 
sidewalk  on  Park  Row,  and  reading  the  newspaper  bulletins  as 
they  cover  one  another  on  the  boards,  like  successive  waves  of 
emotion,  rolling  in  from  the  unseen  but  tangible^throbbing  dis- 
tance. We  know  what  the  past  was.  The  blizzard  of  two  years 
ago  brought  us  down  to  the  normal,  average  conditions  of  semi- 
savagery  in  locomotion  as  it  prevailed  prior  to  the  introduction  of 
the  steam  road,  conditions  that  need  all  the  glamor  of  the  roman- 
cist  to  be  made  even  tolerable  as  a  picture  to  the  New  Yorker 
who  boards  the  Pullman  special  for  the  south,  and  has  had  his 
pleasure  in  Florida,  and  returned  before  the  storm  that  was  in 
progress  when  he  left  has  gone  eastward  to  discover  Europe. 

What  steam  has  been  to  long-distance  travel  in  replacing  the 
stage  coach  and  the  sail,  electricity  is  in  turn  to  urban  travel  in 
replacing  the  horse  car  and  the  cable  road.  Later  in  this  paper  I* 
•will  indicate  the  manner  in  which  electricity  may  sooner  or  later 
realize  the  best  and  brightest  promises  made  on  behalf  of  the 
trans-continental  steam  railroad,  but  pur  first  thought  is  as 
to  electrical  travel  within  towns  and  cities,  and  the  manner  in 
which  it  affects  social  relations,  by  modifying  as  with  the 
harlequin  wand  of  transformation  all  the  conditions  to  which  we 
have  heretofore  been  subjected. 

In  speaking  of  this  great  advance  in  electricity  as  applied  to 
the  comfort  and  convenience  of  man,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  under- 
stood as  praising  a  perfect  thing.  We  are  in  the  early  stages  of 
practical  electric  locomotion.  The  pioneer  work  has  been  done 
by  young  men,  still  among  us,  much  too  near  their  salad  days  to 
fall  into  the  reminiscent  vein.  It  is  barely  three  years  ago  that  I 
had  myself  the  honor  of  bringing  before  the  American  Institute 
of  Electrical  Engineers  the  first  statistics  published  on  American 
electrical  railways,  when  I  seized  with  brazen  audacity  upon 
every  bit  of  a  track  that  could  possibly  bear  inclusion  as  a  road. 
I  would  be  understood  rather  as  appearing  in  advocacy  of  an 
improvement  in  many  respects  crude,  but  that  is  not  yet  appreci- 


ated  even  as  it  stands.  We  of  the  electrical  industry  have  a  great 
duty  in  this  respect,  of  preaching  the  advantages  of  electric 
locomotion,  in  season  and  out  of  season  ;  and  by  our  persistency 
we  can  help  the  art  along.  The  phrase  that  good  wine  needs  no 
bush  was  not  coined  by  an  American  advertiser,  and  the  idea 
that  electricity  will  make  its  own  way  is  not  justified  by  the 
history  of  any  great  invention  that  has  yet  subserved  the  needs 
of  mankind.  Electric  locomotion  is,  however,  ready  for  adoption 
at  an  opportune  moment.  It  offers  itself  at  a  time  when  every  thing 
else  that  has  been  tried  for  urban  travel,  has  revealed  objections 
and  disadvantages,  the  more  keenly  realized  because  of  our  higher 
conceptions  of  what  such  travel  may  be.  It  is  a  singular  prin- 
ciple that  as  a  system  or  device  reaches  perfection  something 
comes  forward  to  supersede  it.  The  horse  coach  was  at  its  height 
of  speed  and  comfort  when  the  steam  engine  challenged  it.  The 
white-sailed  China  clipper  was  never  swifter  than  when  it 
lowered  its  flag  to  the  conquering  steamship.  And  so  to-day,, 
the  horse,  the  cable  and  the  steam  locomotive  have  shown  the 
utmost  that  they  can  do,  just  as  the  electric  motor  rolls  to  the 
front  and  takes  the  stage,  as  the  means  best  suited  to  the  peculiar 
requirements  of  passenger  traffic  in  modern  towns  and  cities.  I 
do  not  say  that  it  will  banish  these  competitors  from  the  scene, 
but  I  do  maintain  that  its  superiority  will  quickly  gain  it  the 
decided  preference.  I  am  always  suspicious  of  an  invention  or 
improvement  that  is  going  to  knock  out  everything  else,  like  a 
charge  of  dynamite.  History  is  against  any  such  phenomenon. 
What  we  do  see  is  a  limitation  of  the  antecedent  methods  and 
appliances  to  the  sphere  within  which  they  are  most  useful  and 
economical.  The  old  is  restricted  to  its  proper  place  and  function 
as  by  a  ring  of  fire  ;  the  new  goes  on  making  its  own  kingdom 
until  at  last  its  boundaries  of  achievement  are  also  determined. 
Thus,  as  Tennyson  puts  it,  "  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways, 
lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world." 

The  first  of  the  social  considerations  to  which  I  would  direct 
notice  is  the  effect  on  the  public  of  the  adoption  of  electricity  as  a 
motive  power  for  street  railways.  The  struggle  for  supremacy  in 
urban  passenger  work  has  already  narrowed  down  strictly  to  the 
horse,  the  cable  and  the  electric  motor.  As  everybody  knows, 
steam  motors  are  completely  out  of  favor  for  use  within  city 
limits.  Their  glorious  record  of  half  a  century  in  long-distance 
travel  does  not  deceive  anyone  dwelling  in  a  city  as  to  the  insu- 
perable defects  and  nuisances  of  noise,  smell,  smoke,  dust,  steam 
escape,  oil  drippings,  etc. ,  which  may  more  readily  be  tolerated, 
remotely,  in  the  open  country.  Perhaps  I  am  wrong,  but  I 
believe  we  shall  not  see  any  more  steam  roads  in  New  York,  and 
that  imposing  as  are  the  statistics  of  the  Manhattan  elevated  sys- 
tem to-day,  they  will  be  eclipsed  in  a  very  few  years  by  those  of 
the  newer  form  of  electric  locomotion.  And  may  not  the  same 
be  said  as  to  the  horse?  There  are  now  close  upon  15,000  horses 
engaged  in  hauling  street  cars  around  this  city.  It  is  high  time 
that  every  one  of  these  was  dispensed  with,  as  well  for  its  own 
sake  as  for  that  of  the  city,  whose  air  it  assists  in  polluting  and 


whose  population  it  aids  in  driving  into  exile.  Allowing  an  aver- 
age space  of  40  square  feet  to  each  horse,  or  a  stall  9  feet  by  4>£ 
feet,  we  find  that  in  stall  space  alone  those  15,000  horses  occupy 
600,000  square  feet  of  floor  in  their  stables.  These  horses  are 
required  to  operate  some  2,400  cars,  an  average  of  about  seven  to 
the  car  if  every  car  were  in  commission  at  once,  which  is  not  at 
all  the  case.  But  even  if  nearly  all  the  cars  were  wanted,  an 
average  of  10  h.  p.  each  would  be  ample  in  the  central  station  of 
an  electrical  plant,  bringing  us  to  a  liberal  allowance  of  25,000 
h.  p.  But  here  comes  in  the  remarkable  though  not  unfamiliar 
fact  that  a  steam  plant  will  go  into  much  less  space  than  an  ani- 
mal power  plant  of  equal  capacity.  Mr.  C.  J.  Field,  who  is 
known  to  many  of  you  as  a  constructing  and  mechanical  engi- 
neer, informs  me  that  his  recent  practice  shows  that  a  generating 
electrical  plant  for  £0,000  h.  p.,  to  operate  all  the  street  cars  of 
this  city,  could  easily  be  placed  in  a  building  100x150.  The 
engines  and  the  dynamos  would  be  placed  on  the  first  floor,  and 
the  boilers  on  the  second  floor.  The  generators  in  such  a  plant 
would  be  multipolar,  500  h.  p.  each,  directly  connected  to  the 
engines,  and  each  engine  would  be  of  a  vertical  triple  expansion 
type,  of  500  h.  p.  each.  This  gives  only  1J^  square  feet  to  the 
horse-power,  and  we  may  offset  the  space  for  feed,  etc.,  by  that 
for  coal,  etc.  I  have  tested  these  figures  by  those  of  recent  elec- 
tric light  stations  in  actual  operation,  and  they  are  found  to  be 
very  fair  and  reasonable.  It  might  be  objected  that  all  the  power 
would  not  be  bunched  in  this  way  ;  but  even  with  half  a  dozen 
generating  stations  of  2,000  h.  p.  there  would  only  be  an  increase 
in  space  required  of  about  ten  per  cent.  From  this  remarkable 
but  strictly  proper  comparison,  we  can  form  an  idea  as  to  the 
economy  of  real  estate,  bearing  in  mind  also  the  fact  that  horse 
car  stables  are  generally  wooden  or  brick  sheds,  only  one  or  two 
stories  in  height,  while  an  electrical  plant  may  be  run  up  as  high^ 
as  an  apartment  house  or  an  office  building,  just  as  ornate  with- 
out, just  as  clean  within. 

Hence  there  can  be  no  mistake  in  the  statement  that  elec- 
tricity is  a  direct  boon  to  the  urban  population  that  clings  to  the 
city,  loves  the  city  life,  and  that  if  crowded  out  from  it  into  the 
country  suffers  all  the  pangs  of  banishment.  Indirectly,  too,  it  is 
a  further  boon  because  with  horses  a  great  portion  of  the  district 
surrounding  the  car  stables  is  also  spoiled  for  human  habitation. 
The  whole  region  within  what  I  would  define  as  "the  area  of 
smell "  is  unsavory  and  unhealthy  the  year  through,  and  the  con- 
sequence is  that  while  the  taxing  and  renting  value  of  it  is  less- 
ened, the  death  rate  is  run  up.  ' '  Do  not  insult  a  respectable  animal 
who  has  come  from  the  country  to  do  his  share  of  the  work  of 
the  world,"  says  one  authority,  "  and  has  brought  with  him  the 
^memory  of  the  sweet  hills  and  skies  at  least,  by  immuring  him  in 
'one  of  those  cramped,  rickety,  rotten,  slovenly,  damp  dungeons, 
where  a  dumb  beast  would  lose  his  self-respect  and  his  courage, 
beneath  an  oppressive  weight  of  miasma,  and  hideous,  gloomy, 
nasty  confusion."  And  so  say  all  of  us,  and  all  of  us  are  glad  to 
note  a  vast  improvement  in  this  respect.  The  stables  are  better 


ventilated  now  as  a  rule,  but  the  trouble  is  just  there.  If  they 
were  not  so  well  ventilated,  the  neighborhood  would  be  sweeter, 
and  would  be  fitter  for  human  beings  to  live  in.  The  poor  die 
quicker  that  the  horses  may  suffer  longer. 

An  objection  I  may  anticipate  is  that,  after  all,  such  large  gen- 
erating plants  would  not  be  desirable  with  their  huge  smoke 
stacks,  their  discharge  of  gases,  etc.,  upon  the  atmosphere,  their 
receipt  of  coal  and  their  removal  of  ashes.  I  would  reply  that  it 
is  by  no  means  necessary  for  such  plants  to  be,  as  the  stables 
must  be,  right  upon  the  main  lines  of  travel.  They  would  by 
decided  preference  be  located  near  the  water's  edge,  out  of  the 
way.  Moreover,  the  stacks  would  be,  as  they  are  to-day  in  large 
electric  light  plants,  high  enough  to  carry  off  all  smoke  or  smell 
far  beyond  perception.  Perhaps  the  familiar  smoke  stack  is  not 
an  aesthetic  object,  but  it  can  be  made  so.  There  are  steeples  in 
this  town  that  on  the  score  of  their  beauty  are  not  fit  to  compare 
with  smoke  stacks  near  them. 

Much  that  I  have  said  under  this  head  with  respect  to  elec- 
tricity applies  to  the  cable.  That  system  has  been  an  immense 
advance  in  street  car  travel,  and  is  destined  to  many  years  of  use- 
fulness yet.  It  is  worthy  of  much  praise  ;  but  it  will  not  hold  its 
own  with  electricity,  simply  because  it  is  deficient  in  some  things 
that  electricity  possesses  to  a  pre-eminent  degree.  It  has  been  a 
forerunner  for  electricity.  It  is  not  only  enormously  costly 
in  its  first  installation,  but  has  the  disadvantage  of  being  a  unit. 
The  whole  of  the  road  and  all  its  power  hangs  by  that  one  cable. 
If  the  cable  be  duplicated  in  the  conduit,  the  expense  is  again  so 
much  the  heavier,  while  the  criticism  as  to  risk  still  stands. 
Moreover,  a  cable  car  cannot  go  backward  at  its  driver's  will. 
Onward  it  must  go,  Mazeppa-like,  strapped  down  to  its  carrier, 
no  matter  what  unfortunate  contingency  impend,  or  what  ob- 
stacle lies  in  its  path.  It  cannot  greatly  vary  its  own  speed.  An 
electric  car  is  so  manageable  that  it  will  reverse  in  its  own  length 
or  less.  But  the  greatest  trouble  of  all  with  the  cable  is  that  it  is 
always  the  one  thing,  while  there  are  very  few  towns  or  cities 
that  are  alike  in  offering  just  the  rigid  Procrustean  conditions  it 
meets.  There  are  about  50  cities  in  the  United  States  with  a  pop- 
ulation of  over  50,000,  but  there  are  between  700  and  800  street  rail- 
way companies,  if  not  more  ;  so  that  even  if  all  the  places  in  the 
first  category  could  justify  the  heavy  expenditure  on  a  cable  sys- 
tem, there  are  hundreds  of  others  unable  to  do  so.  We  need  not 
wonder  then  that  at  their  last  convention  in  Minneapolis,  the 
street  railway  men  gave  electricity  such  a  hearty  welcome,  adopt- 
ing the  enthusiastic  if  not  elegant  language  of  a  committee  report 
which  said  that  it  "filled  the  bill  to  perfection."  Nor  need  we 
wonder  that  the  street  railway  company  in  Minneapolis  has  just 
thrown  aside  an  unused  cable  plant  that  cost  $400,000,  and  is  put- 
ting in  electric  cars  and  over  100  miles  of  electric  road. 

Why  does  electricity  "  fill  the  bill,"  and  in  a  manner  that  inter- 
ests the  public?  Well,  for  the  reasons  given  already  and  for 
others.  It  is  above  all  things  flexible,  plastic,  protean.  It  can  be 
applied  in  half  a  dozen  different  ways,  and  be  absolutely  safe  for 


8 

human  life  in  any  and  all  of  them.  The  street  railway  may  be 
equipped  with  an  overhead  system  for  supplying  the  current  to 
the  motors,  and  to  that  system,  well  built,  with  trim  ornamental 
poles,  lines  well  run  and  guarded,  little  or  no  objection  can  be 
offered.  The  air  is  God's  own  insulation  ;  we  know  none  better, 
none  so  cheap,  and  a  wire  is  well  insulated  up  aloft.  The  Bos- 
tonians,  who  are  people  setting  no  small  store  by  their  refined^ 
acute  and  cultivated  taste,  have  adopted  poles  and  wires  in  pref- 
erence to  the  hideously  ugly  lattice  work  tunnels  we  have  in  New 
York  to  hold  up  our  elevated  roads,  and  I  admire  them  for  it.  It 
is  possible  that  Boston  may  have  an  elevated  road,  but  if  so  it 
will  be  a  handsome  electric  one.  Or,  if  the  overhead  wire  be 
objected  to,  as  it  may,  there  is  the  conduit  system,  which  is  fully 
able  to  give  a  good  account  of  itself  if  w'ell  put  in  and  plenty 
of  money  be  spent  on  it.  It  is  true  that  the  wires  are  not  ex- 
posed in  the  conduit  system,  but  otherwise  there  is  not  much 
operative  difference  between  it  and  the  overhead  method.  There 
may  be  difficulties  in  heavy  wet,  or  snowy  weather,  but  we 
shall  see  them  all  overcome.  Or  should  this  or  its  modifica- 
tions again  be  found  fault  with,  there  is  the  ideal  storage  battery 
system,  where  each  car  starts  out  "on  its  own  hook,"  an  inde- 
pendent, self-contained  unit.  I  don't  exactly  know  why  we  call 
it  the  "ideal  system."  It  is  either  within  reach  or  beyond.  If 
within  reach,  it  is  not  "  ideal,"  but  ought,  speaking  from  the  pub- 
lic standpoint,  to  be  adopted  wherever  there  is  actual  need  for  it. 
It  may  be  a  trifle  expensive,  But  that  is  certainly  not  one  reason 
more  why  the  public  should  do  without  it.  It  may  be  somewhat 
difficult  to  put  and  keep  in  order.  "  Coaches,  Sammy,"  said  the 
elder  Weller,  sententiously,  to  his  son,  "  coaches  is  like  guns — 
they  require  to  be  loaded  with  werry  great  care  afore  they  go 
off,"  and  that  is  about  the  case  with  the  storage  battery  cars. 
But  they  do  go  off,  and  we  know  from  the  approval  they  have 
met  with  that  they  do  hit  the  mark  of  popular  approval, — and  that 
is  one  of  the  main  things  I  am  talking  about  to-night. 

It  is  in  one  or  other  of  these  systems  or  modifications  of  them 
that  electricity  will  become  familiar  to  the  public  of  this  country 
in  street  railway  work.  It  will,  I  think,  be  chiefly  for  a  long  time 
to  come,  the  overhead  system,  which  is  not  costly  to  put  up,  is 
not  expensive  to  maintain,  can  be  operated  economically  at  about 
half  the  running  charges  of  animal  power,  and  fully  answers  the 
requirements  of  the  vast  majority  of  our  thriving,  intelligent 
centres  of  trade  and  manufacture.  All  these  methods  are  safe, 
and  none  of  us  ever  heard,  or  expects  to  hear,  that  the  current  of 
500  volts  they  have  employed  has  taken  a  single  human  life.  The 
motor  cars  cannot  "  explode,"  the  daily  papers  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  They  scatter  no  dust  or  ashes  ;  they  do  not  lit- 
ter the  streets  with  offensive  refuse,  but  rather  ozonize  the  air  ; 
they  are  pleasant  to  ride  in  and  they  do  not  damage  the  paving* 
They  require  good  tracks  for  their  best  operation,  and  naturally 
make  their  worst  showing  on  the  automatic  mud  sprinklers  that 
so  begutter  the  roadways  in  this  city.  But  the  roadbed  between 
the  tracks  they  never  touch.  It  might  as  well  be  a  continuous^ 


plot  of  flowers.  In  the  outskirts  of  Boston,  some  of  the  electric 
cars  whose  aerial  wires  run  hidden  between  the  overarching  trees,, 
have  their  tracks  laid  down  on  a  narrow  green  lawn  for  three  or 
four  miles  ;  and  at  a  remove  of  but  a  few  feet,  it  seems  to  the 
spectator  as  though  the  cars  were  gracefully  skimming  over  the 
smooth  grass,  in  effortless  flight,  like  low-darting,  even-poised 
swallows. 

I  have  just  spoken  of  the  outskirts  of  Boston,  and  this  brings 
me  to  another  important  point  wherein  electric  cars  are  an  ele- 
ment making  for  the  public  good.  They  help  a  man  to  get  farther 
away  from  his  business,  and  yet  bring  him  nearer  to  it.  "Rapid 
transit  "  by  their  means  is  no  longer  a  deceiving  phrase,  or  the 
proud  monopoly  of  one  or  two  big  cities.  The  smallest  city  in  the 
country  is  at  once  given  a  command  it  never  had  before  over  the 
territory  around  it.  The  smallest  store  keeper  or  the  humblest 
clerk  can  revel  in  the  sweets  of  rural  life,  if  he  wish.  His  electric 
car,  running  at  15  or  20  miles  an  hour,  will  give  him  more  of  home 
life — a  few  golden  minutes  with  the  children  in  the  morning,  an 
earlier  return  to  the  wife  at  nightfall.  The  whole  social  atmo- 
sphere of  the  place  is  vivified,  and  the  social  bonds  are  knit  closer, 
as  they  always  must  inevitably  be  where  the  facilities  of  travel  are 
increased,  and  the  opportunities  of  intercourse  are  multiplied. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Rapid  transit  of  this  nature  opens  up  a 
number  of  districts  that  before  were  practically  inaccessible 
for  residential  purposes.  There  are  few  of  us  who  care  to- 
practice  the  ancient  form  of  dissipation  known  as  early  rising, 
agreeing  rather  with  Charles  Lamb,  in  the  idea  that  to  rise  with 
the  lark  or  go  to  bed  with  the  sheep  is  a  popular  fallacy.  There 
are  still  fewer  of  us,  who,  even  for  the  sake  of  rural  delights,  care 
to  isolate  and  immure  ourselves  in  remote  suburbs  reached  with 
difficulty.  In  vacation  time,  it  is  true,  we  often  seek  the  loneli- 
ness of  the  woods,  or  the  solitude  of  the  mountains,  that  we  may 
commune  with  Nature  and  hear  the  still  small  voice  of  our  better 
self  ;  but  when  we  are  doing  the  world's  work  50  weeks  in  the 
year,  we  want  to  be  handily  situated  for  reaching  our  desk  or 
bench.  If  a  man  lives  in  the  city,  he  pays  a  high  rent  and  takes- 
Irish  views  of  the  landlord  question.  If  he  lives  far  out,  and 
wastes  his  time  in  travel,  he  is  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  eight 
hour  movement.  I  look  upon  electric  roads,  therefore,  as  likely 
to  prove  a  beneficial  agency  in  the  more  equal  distribution  of  a 
happier  population  around  any  centre,  thus  increasing  the  return 
on  outlying  property,  while,  by  the  encouragement  of  retail  trade, 
enhancing  the  profit  of  the  area  lying  within  the  region  thereafter 
more  legitimately  restricted  to  business  occupancy.  I  have 
watched  with  much  interest  the  manner  in  which  electric  roads 
have  already  thus  developed  suburban  areas.  Booms  are  not  a 
particularly  healthy  feature  of  progress,  but  they  may  be,  and  not 
infrequently  are,  genuiue  and  real ;  and  I  know  nothing  more 
likely  to  bring  on  a  real  estate  boom  of  the  best  character  with 
permanent  results  than  the  installation  of  a  well-managed  electric 
road,  enabling  a  man  to  leave  his  work  at  6  o'clock,  and  be  sitting 
down  to  his  supper  sev.en  or  ten  miles  out,  if  he  wish,  under  his 
own  roof -tree,  at  6.30. 


10 

Having  thus  discussed  the  effect  of  electric  roads  on  the  com- 
munity and  on  the  individual  citizen,  I  will  add  a  word  as  to  their 
effect  on  the  wonderful  impersonal  entity,  "  capital."  If  all  that 
I  have  said  be  true  as  to  the  general  benefits,  it  follows  that  the 
wealth  and  ease  of  the  community  are  materially  increased  ;  but 
what  I  refer  to  now,  is  not  the  direct  enhancement  of  values,  so 
hard  to  trace  out,  though  so  palpable,  but  the  stimulus  given  to 
saving  habits  by  the  better  opportunities  of  investment.  Careful 
analysis  of  the  working  of  electric  roads  goes  to  prove  that  when 
operated  with  skill  and  discretion,  they  are  50  per  cent,  less  expen- 
sive to  run  than  horse  railroads  are.  What  does  this  mean?  One 
thing  it  means  is  that  many  roads  can  be  built  that  would  be  out 
of  the  question  with  horses.  Another  is  that  roads  not  paying  can 
be  placed  on  a  dividend  basis.  In  1888,  out  of  19  horse  roads 
reporting  in  New  York  city,  10  showed  a  deficiency.  Last  year 
their  net  earnings  were  much  better,  but  it  is  evident  that  a  horse 
road  is  not  always  a  mine  of  wealth,  though  it  may  be  of  fertili- 
zers. A  third  point  is  the  establishing  of  a  new  class  of  invest- 
ments of  a  solid,  enduring  nature.  It  is  within  everybody's 
knowledge  that  the  accumulation  of  capital  tends  constantly  to 
the  reduction  of  interest  to  a  minimum.  There  was  a  time  when 
the  long  stocking  and  the  iron  chest  were  the  common  bankers  for 
the  savings  of  the  timid  ;  and  the  capital  that  was  bold  earned  the 
double  reward  of  its  bravery  and  scarcity.  As  Walter  Bagehot, 
the  economist,  has  remarked,  the  English  people  have  always 
wanted  to  put  their  money  into  something  safe  that  will  yield  five 
per  cent. ;  and  this  is  undoubtedly  one  reason  why  English  capital, 
free  and  fluent,  is  so  much  a  power  in  the  finance  of  the  world, 
and  why  so  much  comes  this  way.  As  Mr.  Bagehot  says  : — "  In 
most  countries,  most  men  are  content  to  forego  interest ;  but  in 
more  advanced  countries  at  some  times  there  are  more  savings 
seeking  investment  than  there  are  known  investments  for."  It 
is  thus  in  America,  so  far  as  "  safe  "  investments  are  concerned, 
and  by  safe  I  mean  such  as  do  not  require  the  active  care  and 
ceaseless  thought  of  the  capitalist,  but  may  be  held  by  trus- 
tees, widows,  hospitals,  universities,  savings  banks  and  the  like. 
The  competition  of  capital  for  the  best  class  of  government  bonds, 
municipal  bonds,  railroad  stocks,  &c.,  has  reduced  the  return  on 
these  to  a  very  low  figure,  whether  in  America  or  England  or 
Germany  ;  and  the  result  is  that  we  see  to-day,  as  never  before, 
the  planning  of  enormous  trusts  and  gigantic  industrial  enter- 
prises, which  represent  in  no  small  degree  the  endeavor  of  capital, 
or  savings,  still  to  enjoy  its  wonted  income,  but  in  newer  fields. 
Now  I  look  upon  the  street  railway  business  of  the  country,  under 
the  regime  of  electricity,  as  offering  one  of  the  best  opportunities  for 
local  capital,  and  for  what  may  be  called  the  organization  of  local 
savings,  which  might  otherwise  lie  around  in  napkins,  like  the 
unjust  steward's  talent,  and  be  of  no  use  to  anybody.  The  capital 
in  street  railways  in  America  to-day,  reaches  from  $175,000,000  to 
$200  000,000.  If  the  statement  I  have  made  as  to  the  superior 
economy  of  electrical  power  be  true,  how  much  greater  becomes 
the  earning  capacity  of  this  investment,  and  how  much  greater 


11 

are  the  attractions  held  out  to  construct  the  hundreds  of  new 
roads  that  are  still  wanted  and  will  be  called  for  as  our  towns  and 
cities  grow.  Of  course,  I  am  aware  that  it  may  be  said  that  this 
showing  might  lead  to  a  demand  for  lower  fares.  It  might,  but 
the  public  is  intelligent  enough  to  know  that  other  things  are  more 
necessary,  such  as  better  cars,  with  better  heat  and  better  light  ; 
improved  tracks,  faster  running  time  and  shorter  headway  ;  so 
that  the  150,000,000  passengers  on  the  street  railroads  every  year 
may  travel  in  all  safety  and  comfort.  Street  railroads  are  peculi- 
arly suitable  as  a  field  for  local  investment.  Their  operation  can 
be  watched  all  the  time.  They  run  under  a  man's  eye  when  he  is 
on  the  street,  or  past  his  window  when  he  is  home.  He  knows 
something  of  their  officials  ;  he  can  influence  the  domestic  legis- 
lation they  are  subject  to  ;  he  can  assist  in  more  ways  than  one  to 
swell  their  earnings. 

The  next  important  point  to  which  I  would  direct  your 
attention  is  the  effect  that  the  electric  railway  has  upon  the 
employes  of  the  service.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  introduc- 
tion of  electricity  in  this  respect  marks  a  decided  advance  in  the 
social  condition  and  aptitudes  of  a  large  body  of  men.  I  have 
never  yet  met  with  anybody  or  anything  that  could  place  the 
work  of  a  horse  car  driver  in  a  favorable  light.  One  certainly 
could  not  fairly  expect  a  man  who  spends  the  day  with  his  nose 
at  the  tail  of  a  car  horse  to  realize  a  very  high  ideal  of  life  and 
duty,  especially  when  the  whole  of  his  work  is  done  under  con- 
ditions exhausting  alike  to  temper  and  physique.  It  is  out-door 
exposure  the  whole  time,  whether  in  summer  heat  or  winter 
blast.  Half  the  time  it  is  an  exercise  of  sheer  brute  strength,  and 
no  car  driver  believes  in  his  heart  that  a  horse-power  is  only 
33,000  foot  pounds  a  minute.  His  aching  wrists  and  dislocated 
shoulders  tell  him  that  Watt  was  far  below  the  mark  in  putting 
it  at  that  figure.  And  then,  the  worry  of  the  street  traffic.  We 
have  all  of  us  noticed  the  conscientious  persistence  with  which 
draymen  and  coachmen  will  keep  on  the  car  tracks  iu  front  of  a 
car.  An  investigation  made  two  or  three  years  ago  in  Chicago 
showed  that  at  one  point  in  the  streets  there,  97.6  of  the  street 
traffic  sought  the  railroad,  while  at  another  it  was  87^,  and  at  a 
third,  90  per  cent.  Against  such  odds  the  driver  with  his  restless 
or  apathetic  team  has  to  make  his  way  and  keep  to  the  running 
schedule  ;  fighting  all  the  time  with  the  fear  of  an  accident  either 
to  his  car  or  to  some  hapless  foot  passenger. 

With  an  electric  car,  the  matter  is  not  one  of  muscle  and 
brawn,  but  of  average  intelligence  and  ordinary  readiness  of 
decision.  A  better  class  of  men  are  wanted  and  forthcoming,  or 
the  same  men  are  relieved  from  physical  wear  and  tear,  and 
thereafter  can  earn  their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  their  brow  and 
not  that  of  their  body.  A  woman  might  easily  run  an  electric 
car.  The  motorman  gets  instantaneously  by  the  turn  of  a  switch 
the  exact  degree  of  power  that  he  wants ;  he  can  apply  his 
brakes  readily  ;  and  if  he  needs  to  run  backward  up-hill  he  can 
do  so,  sitting  down  at  his  switch.  It  is  not  necessary  to  expose 
him  to  the  weather.  His  fears  as  to  running  people  down  are 


12 

materially  lessened  by  the  gain  in  control  of  the  car  and  by  the 
further  fact  that  an  electric  car  takes  up  only  half  the  space  on 
the  street  that  a  horse  car  and  its  team  do.  The  work  is  not  les& 
safe  than  cleanly.  You  may  remember  that  when  steam  roads 
were  started  in  South  Carolina,  one  of  the  negro  drivers  tied 
down  the  safety  valve  and  then  sat  on  it.  As  a  result,  cotton 
bales  were  placed  between  the  locomotive  and  the  coaches  to 
protect  the  passengers  in  case  of  explosion.  The  new  driver  was, 
however,  still  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  bales.  In  electric  cars 
both  driver  and  passengers  are  free  from  harm.  John  Bright 
once  said  that  the  safest  place  on  earth  was  a  first-class  carriage 
in  an  express  train  ;  but  to-day  it  may  be  fairly  affirmed  that  no 
vehicle  can  compare  as  to  freedom  from  danger  with  the  electric 
street  car. 

A  feature  of  this  refinement  of  the  work  is  that  it  must  neces- 
sarily be  attended  by  better  pay  for  the  higher  intelligence  and 
skill.  Mere  brute  strength  does  not  command  good  wages  now- 
adays, except  in  a  prize  fighter,  and  the  further  we  get  away 
from  animal  conditions  the  better  do  we  find  the  status  of  the 
individual  or  the  occupation  to  be.  The  remarks  made  above  as 
regards  the  drivers  apply  equally  to  the  staff  at  the  generating 
plant.  People  sometimes  wonder  why  there  are  so  many  hostlers 
around  car  stables,  but  when  you  remember  that  well-kept  car 
horses  work  only  two  hours  and  a  quarter  daily,  you  will  see  that 
they  need  a  good  many  attendants  at  the  stables  during  the  other 
20  odd  hours.  In  place  of  these  grooms  and  hostlers  you  have,  with 
an  electric  plant,  a  skilled  force  of  steam  engineers  and  mechanics, 
each  trained  for  the  special  function  which  the  principle  of  the 
division  of  labor  has  shown  him  to  be  best  qualified  for. 

And  here  let  me  inject  the  pertinent  remark,  that  this  new 
and  successful  development  of  electricity  is  one  reason  more  why 
the  mechanical  engineer  and  steam  engineer  should  master  elec- 
trical principles  and  practice,  whether  for  the  higher  walks  of  his 
profession  or  for  the  humbler  duties  of  running  a  plant.  The 
coming  of  electricity,  and  its  application  to  light  and  power,  has 
afforded  a  grand  stimulus  to  steam  engineering  in  every  depart- 
ment, and  may  not  improperly  be  claimed  to  have  created  the 
modern  high  speed  engine.  Sir  William  Thomson  has  said  that 
the  electrical  engineer  is  nine-tenths  a  mechanical  engineer.  To 
this  I  will  add  a  corollary,  and  say  that  the  mechanical  engineer 
may  be  a  master  in  these  new  electrical  fields  if  he  will  only  add 
the  one-tenth  to  his  education.  The  time  is  at  hand  when  the 
mechanical  engineer  will  not  be  considered  worthy  of  his  name 
or  his  calling  unless  he  is  also  an  electrical  engineer,  as  familiar 
with  Ohm's  law  as  he  is  with  Carnot's  or  Mariotte's. 

Incidentally  through  this  paper  I  have  referred  to  the  effect  of 
the  electric  railroad  upon  horses.  It  has,  indeed,  been  most  grati- 
fying to  see  how  readily  the  electric  railroad  has  rallied  to  the 
support  of  the  Humane  Society.  It  is  a  humane  society  itself. 
Whether  he  wished  it  or  not,  the  electrical  engineer  in  this 
instance  is  conferring  a  great  boon  on  the  horse.  We  sometimes 
do  the  greatest  good,  as  we  do  often  the  greatest  evil,  uncon- 


13 

sciously,  rather  than  of  set  purpose  ;  and  so,  here,  the  inventors 
of  the  modern  electric  motor  and  the  electric  car  have  released 
the  horse  from  one  of  the  most  painful  and  exhausting  services 
that  it  was  ever  put  to.  Investigations  over  a  long  period  have 
shown  that  with  the  pavement  dry  a  horse  would  meet  with  an 
accident  in  every  78  miles  of  travel  on  granite ;  on  every  168  miles 
with  the  pavement  damp,  and  every  537  with  the  pavement  thor- 
oughly wet.  Unfortunately  for  the  horse,  though  happily  for  the 
rest  of  us,  the  first  two  conditions  generally  prevail  on  our  streets  ; 
and  hence  the  horse  has  a  poor  outlook  as  to  accidents.  But  it  is 
not  the  accident  the  horse  has  so  much  to  dread,  after  all,  as  the 
constant  strain  and  the  pull  of  a  heavy  load  from  its  dead  rest 
every  few  hundred  yards.  It  is  generally  admitted  by  street 
railway  men  that  car  horses  fail  because  of  this  feature  of  their 
work,  and  that  it  helps  to  cut  down  their  railroad  life  and  utility 
to  the  average  of  from  three  to  five  years.  If  you  want  to  see 
these  conditions  at  their  worst,  take  Broadway,  once  our  pride, 
now  one  of  the  most  overrated  throughfares  in  Christendom. 
The  pavement  is  abominable,  and  the  horses,  like  the  foot  passen- 
gers, can  be  seen  struggling  for  a  grip  on  the  uneven,  slippery 
stones,  all  the  way  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other.  The  traffic 
on  the  street  is  so  great  that  I  have  noted  full  cars  making  a 
dozen  halts  and  starts  from  dead  rest  between  Chambers  and  Bar- 
clay streets — two  blocks.  It  does  not  require  an  expert  to  fore- 
see the  effect  of  such  wear  and  tear  on  animals.  In  Cincinnati, 
recently,  on  installing  an  electric  equipment,  a  street  railway 
company  advertised  its  horses  for  sale  for  family  and  carriage 
purposes.  I  have  not  observed  any  such  advertisements  in  New 
York  city.  The  street  railway  managers  are  more  modest  or 
more  truthful  here  than  they  are  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio.  The 
only  persons  likely  to  regret  seriously  the  departure  of  the  street 
car  horses  from  this  city  would  be  the  horse  dealers  and  feed  sup- 
ply houses,  and  possibly  the  street  cleaning  contractors,  though 
they  get  their  pay  anyhow. 

I  might  point  out  that  as  a  further  offset  to  this  displacement 
of  a  certain  amount  of  labor  in  an  elementary  form  whether  that 
of  the  horse  or  the  human  being  in  charge  of  him,  we  have  the 
stimulus  given  to  a  higher  class  of  labor,  not  only  in  the  station 
engineer,  and  motor  car  driver,  but  in  the  electrical  expert  and 
inventor.  Society  benefits  greatly  by  this,  just  as  it  does  by  the 
superior  skill  and  efficiency  implied  in  the  maintenance  of  such  a 
system  as  that  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  company.  The  run- 
ning of  express  trains  and  fast  steamships  demands  the  exertion  of 
the  best  qualities  of  a  man,  as  well  in  the  conception  of  ideas  of 
improvement  as  in  the  details  of  solid  construction  and  vigilant 
management.  Here,  therefore,  we  strike  at  once  into  a  new  field 
of  design  and  invention,  one  that  promises  to  be  as  large  and 
fruitful  as  any  other  known  to  the  application  of  electricity. 
There  have  already  been  several  hundred  patents  taken  out  on  the 
special  subject  of  electric  railways,  and  the  whole  air  is  alive  with 
rumors  of  the  ideas  and  inventions  assuming  shape.  In  a  year  or 
two  it  will  be  a  wise  motor  that  knows  its  own  father.  Each  new 


14 

step  is  a  prophecy  of  a  dozen  more.  Each  new  patent  is  a  "  father 
of  its  country,"  a  germ  of  endless  fertility.  We  begin  to  learn 
our  resources.  "  Is  there  any  load  that  water  cannot  lift  ?  "  asked 
Emerson,  "If  there  be,  try  steam ;  or  if  not  that  try  electricity. 
Is  there  any  exhausting  of  these  means  ?  " 

Now  and  then  I  hear  the  objection  that  people  would  be  the 
quicker  to  adopt  electric  locomotion  if  it  were  not  so  beset  and 
made  costlier  by  patents.  This  is  not  true,  and  I  have  no  patience 
with  the  spirit  that  begrudges  the  inventor  his  reward.  Why  do 
we  use  the  great  inventions  ?  Simply  and  solely  because  they 
effect  an  economy  for  us  in  some  way  or  other,  chiefly  in  time  or 
money.  If  they  did  not,  we  should  care  little  about  them,  and  the 
inventive  geniuses  of  the  day  would  be  mere  common  clay  to  us. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  the  inventor  is  revered  and  admired,  and  is 
encouraged  by  the  wealth  and  fame  he  can  earn.  Occasionally 
one  hears  the  expression  of  an  idea  that  the  inventor  is  wanting  in 
public  spirit  and  devotion  to  science  because  he  takes  out  patents 
and  does  not  invite  the  world  to  revel  in  the  riches  he  reveals 
while  he  is  content  to  starve  over  a  crust  in  a  garret.  A  few  weeks 
ago,  Mr.  Edison  told  me  that  he  had  found  one  of  his  greatest 
intellectual  pleasures  in  reading  "  Evangeline."  But  why  should  it 
be  less  public  spirited  for  Edison  to  secure  a  patent  on  his  phono- 
graph than  for  Longfellow  to  obtain  a  copyright  on  his  poetry  ? 
Why  should  not  Bell  have  a  patent  on  the  telephone  when  Victor 
Hugo  protects  his  "  Notre  Dame  ?  "  Is  it  not  as  right  for  George 
Westinghouse  to  derive  a  princely  income  from  his  life-saving  air- 
brake as  for  Gilbert  and  Sullivan  from  their  comic  operas?  Shall 
not  Elihu  Thomson  enjoy  some  revenue  from  his  new  art  of  elec- 
tric welding,  as  well  as  Bronson  Howard  from  his  ' '  Shenandoah  ?  " 
It  is  time  that  the  ideas  on  this  subject  were  set  in  the  right  per- 
spective. Our  inventors  enjoy  the  benefits  of  the  patent  system 
because,  like  the  novelists,  the  poets,  the  musicians  and  the  artists,, 
they  are  public  benefactors.  They  promote  the  public  welfare, 
add  to  the  public  comfort,  increase  the  public  wealth.  The  field 
of  electric  locomotion  will  be  but  one  more  opportunity  to  demon- 
strate this  truth.  There  is  no  patent  on  the  horse,  but  the  patented 
electric  motor  can  beat  him  on  every  point  every  day  in  the  week. 

Such  then,  are  some  of  the  reflections  to  which  our  subject 
invites  us,  at  this  early  stage  of  its  development,  and  there  is  but 
one  other  point  to  which  after  this  section,  I  shall  refer  inclosing. 
Before  I  leave  the  electric  street  railway,  I  would  again  say  as  I 
said  at  the  outset,  that  I  am  not  presenting  this  latest  application 
of  electricity  as  perfect.  It  is  not ;  on  the  contrary  it  is  in  devel- 
opment and  improvement  under  our  very  eyes.  It  is  endeavoring 
to  harmonize  with  its  environment.  The  questions  and  problems 
that  it  opens  up  are  very  much  like  the  concentric  shells  of  the 
Chinese  ivory  puzzle  balls  ;  and  we  have  not  yet  reached  their 
core.  It  has  one  or  two  family  quarrels  on  hand.  The  telephone 
is  hardly  yet  on  speaking  terms  with  it.  But  we  know  fairly  well 
where  the  solution  of  each  difficulty  lies,  and  we  are  on  the  way 
to  it.  Nor  am  I  in  any  sense  an  apologist  for  the  shortcomings  of 
our  pioneer  work.  Electric  railroad  men  have  made  mistakes, 


15 

are  making  them  now.  That  cannot  be  helped.  Heaven  save  us 
from  the  men  who  cannot  make  mistakes  ;  they  will  never  learn. 
The  conditions  in  electricity  as  an  industry  change  with  lightning 
rapidity.  A  Russian  general  once  remarked  of  the  political  situa- 
tion in  Central  Asia,  that  it  changed  every  minute  ;  and  so  it  is  in 
regard  to  the  onrush  and  uplift  of  electrical  discovery  and  enter- 
prise. This  very  fact  explains  why  much  of  the  earlier  electric 
railway  work  has  been  of  an  unfinished,  unkempt  kind.  Mr. 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  some  years  ago,  in  his  interesting  little 
work  on  railroads,  said  :— "  It  is  a  matter  of  curious  observation 
that  almost  uniformly  those  early  railroad  builders  made  grave 
blunders,  whenever  they  tried  to  do  their  work  peculiarly  well ; 
they  almost  invariably  had  afterwards  to  undo  it."  This  is  not  an 
excuse,  however,  for  slovenly  work.  It  is  better  to  make  blunders 
trying  to  do  well  than  in  lazily  neglecting  one's  duty  ;  and  though 
it  hurts  a  man  who  built  for  eternity  to  see  his  work  ripped  out  in 
five  years,  he  has  the  serene,  sustaining  consciousness  of  right 
effort  and  honorable  performance.  The  electric  street  railway 
will  the  sooner  achieve  its  social  destiny  if  the  engineering  done 
upon  it  be  the  highest  and  best  that  the  art  at  each  instant  will 
allow. 

The  topic  I  have  reserved  for  brief  final  mention  is  that  of  elec- 
trical long-distance  travel.  This  is  the  department  of  the  subject 
in  which  imagination  has  not  yet  sobered  down  into  invention. 
Our  fancy  still  plays  around  the  possibilities,  and  so  far  from 
realizing  the  social  side  of  teletra  vel,  people  have  not  yet  awakened 
generally  to  the  idea  that  it  has  any  serious,  practical  side  at  all. 
Our  patriarchial  poet,  Whittier,  expressed  his  surprise  a  month  or 
two  ago  in  his  "  Burning  Driftwood,"  when  he  wrote  : — 

"  Far  more  than  all  I  dared  to  dream, 
Unsought  before  my  door  I  see  ; 
On  wings  of  fire  and  steeds  of  steam 
The  world's  great  wonders  come  to  me." 

The  steeds  of  steam  are  now  an  old  familiar  story ;  but  the 
mechanical  Jay-Eye-Sees  of  the  coming  day  bid  fair  to  be  those 
with  "wings  of  fire;"  and  then  our  speed  may  be  something 
more  nearly  approximating  that  of  light.  It  is  amusing,  how- 
ever, to  see  how  quickly  our  generation  has  become  accustomed 
to  teletravel.  Did  not  the  Royal  College  of  Bavarian  Doctors 
seek  to  forbid  railway  travel  because  it  would  induce  delirium 
furiosum  among  the  passengers,  and  drive  the  spectators  crazy  ? 
Did  not  an  English  quarterly  say  :  "  We  would  as  soon  expect  the 
people  of  Woolwich  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  fired  from  one  of 
Congreve's  rockets  as  to  trust  themselves  to  the  mercy  of  a 
machine  going  at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles  per  hour  ? ; '  And  did 
not  our  own  General  Webb  in  1835,  after  a  railroad  journey,  with 
ladies,  from  Boston  to  Providence,  exclaim  in  horror :  "To 
restore  herself  to  her  caste,  let  a  lady  move  in  select  company  at 
five  miles  an  hour,  and  take  her  meals  in  comfort  at  a  decent 
inn."  Suck  alarming  and  conservative  extracts  have  a  familiar 
sound,  perhaps,  but  I  can  assure  you  that  they  are  positively  of 
the  ancient  date  mentioned  and  not  extracts  from  recent  New 


16 

York  newspapers.  The  fact  remains  that  to-day  we  have  ceased 
to  regard  a  speed  of  60  miles  an  hour  in  railway  travel  as  extra- 
ordinary, and  are  casting  about  for  the  means  with  which  to 
attain  a  higher  rate  even  than  75  miles,  of  which  record  was  made 
in  1886,  on  a  short  run.  This  acceleration  is,  it  appears  probable, 
to  be  found  best,  or  only,  in  the  use  of  electricity,  for  the  reason 
that  the  electric  motor  may  drive  directly  on  the  axles,  that  it 
need  not  offer  much  resistance  to  the  air,  or  smash  the  track,  and 
that  it  does  not  have  to  carry  its  own  supply  of  fuel  and  water. 
There  are  men  in  this  audience  who  have  seen  such  an  electric 
locomotive  making  with  ease  120  miles  an  hour,  and  who  propose 
to  propel  it  at  180  miles  an  hour.  If  these  things  be  so — as  they 
are — we  know  that  with  electric  teletravel,  the  public  will  have 
to  accustom  itself  to  strange  new  conditions,  exceeding  in  scope 
and  power  those  of  the  last  fifty  years.  The  change  will  come  in 
our  time,  and  the  present  telegraphic  and  telephonic  facilities  are 
but  an  education  for  it.  When  we  can  talk  instantaneously  with 
friends  in  Boston  or  Philadelphia  over  a  wire,  we  resent  the  inad- 
equacy of  the  means  of  fast  and  far  locomotion  that  should  enable 
us  to  meet  them  face  to  face  if  we  wish  to  do  so.  When  we  see 
electric  cars  in  our  streets  traveling  easily  at  15  and  20  miles  an 
hour,  and  know  that  on  a  clear,  unbroken,  straightaway  track  we 
could  go  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia  or  Boston  with  the  same  j 
agency  and  kindred  apparatus,  in  about  an  hour,  American  inge- 
nuity and  enterprise  will  not  rest  until  the  thing  is  done.  That  | 
will  be  the  first  stage  in  the  next  evolution  of  travel. 

At  the  present  time  electric  street  railroads  are  running  01 
building  in  nearly  150  of  our  towns  and  cities,  with  some  2,000] 
cars  on  about  1,200  miles  of  track.  So  far  as  urban  traffic  is  con- 
cerned, the  new  departure  has  been  made.  Electric  locomotion  is 
with  us,  an  assured  fact,  the  most  civilized  form  of  travel,  as  the 
electric  light  is  of  illumination  and  the  telegraph  or  telephone  is 
of  communication.  Already  over  150,000,000  nickel  ballots  are 
being  cast  yearly  in  its  favor,  and  the  welcome  to  it  is  universal. 
In  the  northwest  that  brand-new  cable  plant  costing  $400,000  has 
just  been  thrown  aside  to  make  room  for  it.  In  the  south,  it  is 
saluted  with  the  exclamation  of  the  delighted  darkey, — "  First 
dey  freed  de  negro,  and  now  dey  freed  de  mule."  In  New  York 
we  are  waiting  on  Providence  and  the  aldermen,  but  we  shall  not 
be  satisfied  till  this  city  is  abreast  of  other  progressive  com-j 
munities  in  the  adoption  of  that  which  has  given,  in  so  short 
time,  so  many  proofs  of  its  ability  to  promote  in  every  respect] 
the  highest  social  welfare  of  the  citizen. 


The  address  was  followed  by  the  exhibition,  with  the  aid  of ! 
the  magic  lantern,  of  over  50  views  of  electric  roads  in  as  manyj 
American  towns  and  cities,  and  of  the  leading  systems.  These  | 
views  were  explained  with  running  comment. 


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